Plastic Free - Sir David Attenborough took to the Pyramid Stage at Glastonbury to praise festivalgoers for using less plastic. The naturalist appeared shortly before Kylie Minogue's set, and previewed some of his new TV series Seven Worlds, One Planet, which is due to air on BBC One later this year. Thousands of people had gathered for his unscheduled appearance. "Those extraordinary marvellous sounds you've just been listening to were the sounds of the creatures that live in the sea and the great oceans. You may have heard some of them in a series that went out two years ago called Blue Planet 2," he said. "There was one sequence in Blue Planet 2 which everyone seems to remember. It was one in which we showed what plastic has done to the creatures that live in the ocean. They have an extraordinary effect. And now, this great festival has gone plastic-free. That is more than a million bottles of water that have not been drunk by you at Glastonbury. Thank you. Thank you.”Architects’ Award Winners - Battersea Arts Centre, Bristol Old Vic and the Royal Opera House are among the winners of the Royal Institute of British Architects’ national awards for 2019. Seven new performing arts buildings from across the UK were recognised for their significant contributions to architecture. Other winners included Alexandra Palace in London, the Southbank Centre, Nevill Holt Opera in Leicester and drama school LAMDA. Battersea Arts Centre reopened in 2018 following a 12-year restoration project which was extended when a fire devastated the venue’s Grand Hall in 2015. The project was designed by architects Haworth Tompkins. Drama school LAMDA was recognised for its new £28.2 million extension, designed by Niall McLaughlin Architects, which was praised for its “robust simplicity”. Other cultural buildings among the winners included King’s College School in Wimbledon’s new music school, the V&A Dundee and the Weston visitor centre at Yorkshire Sculpture Park.Renovation - Portsmouth’s Kings Theatre has announced proposals for a £4m renovation. The project would see three neighbouring shop units demolished to make way for new facilities within a new “creative hub”. These will include rehearsal space, an exhibition area and bars and restaurants to generate more income for the venue. Chief executive of the Kings Theatre Trust, Paul Woolf, says: “The Kings Theatre is a Grade II listed building and, looking at the long-term future, significant extra revenue is required to give the theatre another 110 years. With this in mind we have built a regeneration model that sympathetically preserves the heritage of the theatre while creating new spaces that form a creative hub and revenue generating food and drink offerings.” (Jim Evans) 2 July 2019